a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips
Ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips.
Occurrences
Evidence
legacy_unverified · Source version not recorded · locator unknown
Congress.gov shows Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman as sponsor of H.R.7166, introduced on January 20, 2026, and referred the same day to the House Committee on the Judiciary. The bill remains at the introduced stage with no later action listed.
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Congress.gov lists Mrs. Watson Coleman among the cosponsors of H.R.8051, the Assault Weapons Excise Act, which would impose an additional 1,000 percent excise tax on large-capacity ammunition feeding devices and semiautomatic assault weapons. The bill was introduced on June 14, 2022 and referred to committee.
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Congress.gov lists H.R.4269, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2015, as introduced on December 16, 2015, referred to the House Judiciary Committee, and later referred to the crime subcommittee. CRS summarized the bill as making it a federal crime to knowingly import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon or large capacity ammunition feeding device. Its tracker status remained Introduced.
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Congress.gov’s cosponsor page for H.R.4269 lists Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman [D-NJ-12] as an original cosponsor on December 16, 2015.
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Congress.gov lists H.R.5087, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2018, as introduced on February 26, 2018, referred to the House Judiciary Committee, and later referred to the crime subcommittee. CRS summarized it as a bill to make it a crime to knowingly import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon or large capacity ammunition feeding device. The bill’s status was Introduced.
legacy_unverified · Source version not recorded · locator unknown
Congress.gov’s cosponsor list for H.R.5087 shows Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman [D-NJ-12] as an original cosponsor on February 26, 2018.
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Congress.gov lists H.R.1296, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2019, as introduced on February 15, 2019 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. CRS summarized the bill as making it a crime to knowingly import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon or large capacity ammunition feeding device. The tracker status remained Introduced.
legacy_unverified · Source version not recorded · locator unknown
Congress.gov’s H.R.1296 cosponsor page lists Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman [D-NJ-12] as an original cosponsor on February 15, 2019.
legacy_unverified · Source version not recorded · locator unknown
Congress.gov shows H.R.1808, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022, passed the House on July 29, 2022 by a 217-213 vote, but its latest listed action was August 1, 2022: received in the Senate, read twice, and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. CRS summarized the House-passed bill as criminalizing knowing importation, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of semiautomatic assault weapons or large capacity ammunition feeding devices.
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The House Clerk’s Roll Call 410 records the July 29, 2022 vote on passage of H.R.1808, labeled Assault Weapons Ban. The vote status was Passed, 217 yeas to 213 nays, and Rep. Watson Coleman of New Jersey is recorded as voting Yea.
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Congress.gov lists H.R.698, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2023, as introduced on February 1, 2023. CRS summarized it as making it a crime to knowingly import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon or large capacity ammunition feeding device. The bill’s tracker status remained Introduced, with the latest action on June 5, 2023 concerning first sponsorship succession.
legacy_unverified · Source version not recorded · locator unknown
Congress.gov’s cosponsor page for H.R.698 lists Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman [D-NJ-12] as an original cosponsor on February 1, 2023.
legacy_unverified · Source version not recorded · locator unknown
Congress.gov’s cosponsor page for H.R.8051, the Assault Weapons Excise Act, lists Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman [D-NJ-12] as an original cosponsor on June 14, 2022. The bill was an excise-tax approach aimed at semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity feeding devices rather than a direct ban, and it was not enacted.
legacy_unverified · Source version not recorded · locator unknown
Congress.gov lists Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman as sponsor of H.R.7166, the Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act of 2026, introduced January 20, 2026 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. The bill remained at the Introduced status; its text addresses face-to-face ammunition purchases, ammunition dealer licensing, and reporting of bulk ammunition purchases, not an assault-weapons or high-capacity-magazine ban.
Assessments
The promised federal outcome was an enacted ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition devices. Watson Coleman repeatedly supported qualifying legislation, including original cosponsorship of Assault Weapons Ban bills in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2023, and she voted for H.R.1808 when the House passed it in 2022. But none of the cited assault-weapons-ban bills became federal law; the House-passed 2022 bill stopped in the Senate. Her actions show serious legislative effort, but the promised ban was not delivered.
The promised federal outcome was a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips. The evidence shows Watson Coleman supported or introduced related gun-control measures, including an excise-tax bill targeting assault weapons and large-capacity feeding devices and a bill on online ammunition sales, but those measures did not enact the promised ban. Because there is no evidence that Congress passed and implemented a federal assault-weapons and high-capacity-magazine ban attributable to her work, the promise was not delivered. The legislative activity is enough to credit a serious effort.